Magirus GmbH is a truck manufacturer based in

Ulm Ulm () is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Danube on the border with Bavaria. The city, which has an estimated population of more than 126,000 (2018), forms an urban district of its own (german: link=no, ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, founded by Conrad Dietrich Magirus (1824–1895). It was formerly known as Klöckner Humboldt Deutz AG, maker of the Deutz engines, so the brand commonly used was Magirus Deutz, and for a short time Klöckner. Most trucks from Magirus were also known as Magirus-Deutz. The logo of Magirus Deutz was a stylised M with a sharp, long centre point to represent the spire of

Ulm Minster Ulm Minster (german: Ulmer Münster) is a Lutheran church located in Ulm, State of Baden-Württemberg (Germany). It is currently the tallest church in the world. The church is the fifth-tallest structure built before the 20th century, with a ...

. Magirus is one of the largest manufacturers of fire fighting equipment. Its fire trucks are primarily based upon chassis and engines from Iveco, but occasionally also uses platforms from other truck manufacturers. Magirus is an Iveco Group brand.

History

The company began manufacturing fire-fighting vehicles in 1866. In the late 1910s, it started the production of

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame constructi ...

s and

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

es. These vehicles developed a reputation for high engineering standards, able to operate under the most arduous conditions. The company also invented the

turntable ladder A fire engine (also known in some places as a fire truck or fire lorry) is a road vehicle (usually a truck) that functions as a firefighting apparatus. The primary purposes of a fire engine include transporting firefighters and water to an ...

, as ''Magirus Leiter'', which quickly became an essential item of

fire brigade A fire department (American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and fire suppression se ...

equipment worldwide. Magirus had some involvement in

World War 2 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and

The Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

, producing

gas van A gas van or gas wagon (russian: душегубка, ''dushegubka'', literally "soul killer"; german: Gaswagen) was a truck reequipped as a mobile gas chamber. During the World War II Holocaust, Nazi Germany developed and used gas vans on a large ...

s used for killing Jews. Magirus also supplied ladders for mobile

V-2 Rocket The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develop ...

launch sites. In 1975, Magirus became part of Iveco, which continued producing some Magirus trucks for a short while under the name "Iveco Magirus" before abandoning it completely in most countries. KHD's collaboration with Fiat ended abruptly and less than harmoniously in 1979, leaving Fiat as owner of the Magirus-Deutz brand. However, Iveco trucks were sold under the Magirus brand in Germany and other European and Middle Eastern markets until the end of the 1980s. Today, the Magirus brand is only used for the company's firefighting equipment section, not for the whole fleet of manufactured trucks.

Airship ladders

Though seldom seen today, the Magirus company produced almost all of the early, movable ladders used in the construction of large,

rigid airship A rigid airship is a type of airship (or dirigible) in which the Aerostat, envelope is supported by an internal framework rather than by being kept in shape by the pressure of the lifting gas within the envelope, as in blimps (also called pres ...

s in Germany and the United States. The multi-extension, wooden ladders were mounted on massively constructed, wooden carriage frames with a fifth wheel-style, forward axle assembly. Although it appeared to be designed for horses, the ladders could be easily moved by two men. The carriage was equipped with four, hand screw-type "outriggers" that would resist the ladder from tipping. The ladder did not swivel on the carriage. It was elevated and extended only towards the front of the carriage. In the "working" position, the ladder had to be elevated to about an 80° angle to allow full extension to 85 feet. (The maximum extended length of the largest wooden Magirus ladder is unknown, but the ones used during the erection of the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation's USS Akron and USS Macon reached to 85 feet.) They can be seen, commonly, in early photographs of airships under construction in the 1920s and 1930s.

In the Soviet Union

In 1974, the firm was awarded a contract (called the Delta Project) for delivery in 1975-1976 of about 9,500 dumper and flatbed trucks (Magirus М232 D19 and M290 D26) to the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

to work on the construction of the

Baikal–Amur Mainline The Baikal–Amur Mainline (russian: Байкало-Амурская магистраль, , , ) is a broad-gauge railway line in Russia. Traversing Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East, the -long BAM runs about 610 to 770 km (380 to 4 ...

(BAM). This order was the largest in the company's history. These models were export-only options KHD products which were not offered on the domestic market in Germany. By January 1, 1975, for the first batch of Magirus trucks for BAM construction was ready to be sent to the Soviet Union. Many of these trucks are still in service today. Largely because of this single order, in 1975, export products accounted for 70% of total production by Magirus-Deutz, and the firm took the second place among the German truck manufacturers. In 1982, Magirus-Deutz erstwhile owners KHD sold the licensing rights for Soviet production of up to 25,000 Series 413 diesel engines. These were meant to be installed in heavy USSR trucks and other vehicles.

Products

Current products

* Iveco Magirus Eurocargo * Iveco Magirus Stralis * Iveco Magirus Trakker *

Iveco Magirus Dragon IVECO, an acronym for Industrial Vehicles Corporation, is an Italian multinational transport vehicle manufacturing company. It designs and builds light, medium, and heavy commercial vehicles. The name IVECO first appeared in 1975 after a merger o ...

Gallery

Image:Magirus Bayern 1923 02.jpg, Magirus Fire Engine Model "Bayern" 1923 File:Fire engine - Magirus - 1926.jpg, Horse drawn fire engine, 1926 Image:Magirus Fire Engine 1961 2.jpg, Magirus Fire Engine 1961 File:Magirus-Deutz 232 in Kasachstan.jpg, Magirus in Kokchetav (now

Kokshetau Kokshetau (meaning ''Blueish Mountain'' in Kazakh, kz, Көкшетау, Kökşetau; ; rus, Кокшета́у, p=kokʂɛtaʊ) is a city in northern Kazakhstan and the capital of Akmola Region, which stretches along the southern shore of Lak ...

), Kazakh SSR File:Magirus Deutz Muni front.jpg,

Magirus-Deutz Muni The Magirus-Deutz Muni is a fire-fighting vehicle from Germany. Which was produced by the Ulmer commercial vehicle manufacturer Magirus-Deutz in only 6 pieces History and development In 1957, the Magirus Deutz "Muni" was manufactured as Fire e ...

from 1957 Image:TLF16-25.JPG, Iveco Magirus fire engine Image:TCFD 771BG Magirus TurntableLadders.jpg, Volvo Magirus fire engine Image:Hino-Magirus.jpg, Japanese Fire Service Hino Motors Magirus fire engine File:2june2006 343.jpg, Italian Fire Service vehicles with an Astra crane on the left and a Magirus turntable ladder on the right, Army Parade in Rome, 2 June 2006. Image:Chelmno Gas Van.jpg, Magirus-Deutz truck, similar to those used as

s in Chełmno extermination camp Image:Macon construction.jpg, Magirus ladder on floor at front of USS Macon Image:Rigid airship construction with Magirus ladders.jpeg, Several Magirus ladders in use on the construction of a rigid airship. (Notice men at the very top of several ladders.) Image:Vatican Fire engine 20141005 114427 (cropped).jpg, An ''Iveco Magirus Daily 65C15'' van of the Vatican fire brigade. Image:WIKINEWS 2010 3 03 005.JPG, A retired Iveco 140-25 truntable ladder from

Hong Kong Fire Services Department The Hong Kong Fire Services Department is an emergency service responsible for firefighting and rescue on land and sea. It also provides an emergency ambulance service for the sick and the injured and gives fire protection advice to the pub ...

Timeline

*1864 - Founded by Conrad Dietrich Magirus *1872 - 1872 2-wheel hand ladder climbable when free-standing, model »Ulmer Ladder« *1892 - First horse-pulled rotating ladder 25 m *1904 - First steam powered self-propelled “fire engine” *1916 - First fully automatic drive turn table ladder in the world *1917 - Production of Magirus motor vehicles *1931 - First turn table ladder with steel ladder set *1936 - Fusion with Humboldt-Deutz Motorenfabrik *1951 - Made the highest turntable ladder in the world 52 m *1953 - First turntable ladder with hydraulic drive *1965 - First forward control truck chassis *1971 - First rescue vehicle RW-rail for subway and local railway operation *1972 - First large airport crash tender *1980 - First turntable ladder »low-design« *1986 - First computer controlled turntable ladder *1987 - Take over of previous Bachert production plant in Weisweil, Germany *1992 - Iveco Mezzi Speciali, Brescia, Italy *1994 - First articulated ladder DLK 23-12 GL CC *1996 - Production start of light pumper vehicles in Görlitz/Germany *1997 - Lohr-Magirus in Graz/Austria *2000 - First oscillation-free turntable ladder (Computer Stabilized) *2005 - „Firework of Novelties“ at the Interschutz in Hannover *2007 - New modular bodywork generation AluFire 3 *2010 - Presentation of the models M 32 L-AT, M 33 P, SuperDragon 2, MultiStar2 at the Interschutz in Leipzig *2015 - World's highest turntable ladder, 68 meters

References

External links

* {{Automotive industry in Germany Iveco Truck manufacturers of Germany Companies based in Ulm Fire service vehicle manufacturers German brands